Blogs

Congratulations this week, (for the second time in a row!) to Old Jack is Back for his excellent Janus in a Dinner Jacket, and also to Sean McNulty for Christmas Game Over using a format borrowed from the Fighting Fantasy books. It's set at a Christmas party and works surprisingly well! http://www.abctales.com/story/old-jack-back/janus-dinner-jacket http://www.abctales.com/story/sean-mcnulty/christmas-game-over Here's this week's Inspiration...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04vkcgz/tony-bennett-lady-gaga-cheek-to-cheek-live I don’t listen to music much. The radio in my van turns on automatically. I turn it off automatically. I prefer listening to the engine whining and failing instead. Elvis was on BBC 4 last night, it was the young Elvis, not the bloated star he later became. Elvis live at, probably, Las Vegas. I listened for two minutes during the adverts. He was terrible...

Kris Commons, Scottish footballer of the year with 32 goals last season, described by Chris Sutton as the nearest Celtic have got to a Lubo Moravcik and voted as the best player in Scottish football by his fellow professionals is leaving Celtic –why? He’s 31. Lubo Moravcik was 49 (well 33) when he came to Celtic, or so it seemed as the time. He scores on his debut against Dundee and a fortnight later against Rangers and let’s face it, there’s no...

Remember the internet in December 1983? Morphing about the place with floppy-disk hair talking about equality, freedom and changing the world. How we laughed loading up computers like washing machines. We’d go to bed, get up in the morning and it would be making that strange noise as it dry humped data, trying to get its insides out. We’d explain comparing a computer to an electrical typewriter was the wrong analogy. One worked by electricity...

Note: nobody in Hollywood has a normal sounding name, the screenplay was by Joss Whedon with help from Zak Penn. I’m not sure why dear old Joss needed any help with his screenplay but when Walt Disney Studios is paying out (a declared) $220 you can be sure they want bang, bang, bang for their buck. And boy do they get it. There’s a fight every ten seconds involving Loki, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Scarlett Johansson (I can’t...

Minette's whodunnits are sick and dirty. I find them real page-turners. I read this one in a 3 hour gulp last night and will probably re-read it today. In fact, bad confession here, it will probably be a re-reread as I got to around the middle and recognised one of the nicer characters. I only get this with whodunnits, anything else I know by around page 5 if it is a re-read. Some of her books have villains and victims who are from the bottom of...

Thought members would like to read this from the Poet Lauriat: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/20/-sp-dorothy-wordsworths-christmas-birthday-carol-ann-duffy-a-christmas-poem

I prefer books but I’ve got a Kindle. I’ve downloaded Katy Brand’s Brenda Monk is Funny and read about 16% of it (Kindle doesn’t do page numbers). Brenda Monk isn’t funny, but the novel does give an interesting and readable account of the British comedy circuit. Dominic Frisby claims to be a comedian. I’ve got to about 11% of Frisby’s book and I’m sure he is. It’s Social Darwinism in its purest form, laissez-faire capitalism doesn’t work because...

Sometimes less is more, and there's no better example of this than our Story of the Week - love-writing's dispassionate account of the loss of her baby at birth: http://www.abctales.com/story/lovewriting/amy Congratulations also to Parson Thru for Broken Faith, our Poem of the Week, which is a simple yet powerful reaction to recent events: http://www.abctales.com/story/parson-thru/broken-faith The Inspiration Point for today is The Shortest Day...

Owen Jones (2012) Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. We live in a something for nothing society, but only one party, only one class ensure that its members get away with it. What’s more the top centile of wealth that own almost everything, and everybody, are lauded for their efforts in wealth generation. We eat gruel. Well, not exactly, gruel. Pre-school meals and after-school care in my district are being stopped. Merry Christmas...